Panda, Penguin, Now Zebra? Here’s What You Need To Know…

On Beyond Zebra!
On Beyond Zebra! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is no secret that Google is releasing updates that are designed to return their search engine results to relevance. While many people in the SEO industry believe this is a plan by Google to completely thwart SEO as a marketing tool, this is not actually the truth. While SEO has definitely been impacted by Panda and the other updates, it is far from dead.

There are people who will still cry out the death knell of SEO, but more rational minds realize that Google needs SEO to remain the dominant force on the internet. However, while Google needs SEO it also still needs to provide relevant search results. For both the SEO industry and Google to survive both sides must work together.

Google Striving to Make SEO Better

The idea that Google needs SEO does not mean that updates such as Zebra don’t have an impact on SEO driven sites. The updates actually tend to have a very big impact. However what it does mean is that those who want to use SEO need to also be in line with Google’s recommended best practice guidelines. This does mean that SEO needs to change, although this was already happening before Google released Panda, Penguin or Zebra.

SEO had become so widely used that while it was a legitimate strategy for increasing a web site’s rankings, it had become almost detrimental to legitimate sites. Too many bogus sites were simply stacking keywords on top of each other and spreading false search results through not only Google, but Bing and Yahoo as well. This not only hurt Google but hurt the SEO industry as a whole.

Updates Level Playing Field

In fact rather than being upset by Google’s release of their updates, those of us in the SEO industry should be grateful. Those updates helped make the field level again. By making the field level again, it means that if your site is a good site and has real content that is relevant to the reader who finds it, you have just as good a chance of generating income as anyone else. Once again, SEO can be more than stacks of keywords and this is something that should excite those of us who are part of the SEO industry.

Rules Continue to Evolve for Better SEO

Have the rules changed? Yes, but they needed to. SEO had become too overused and too irrelevant. It was starting to turn off internet users in droves. This meant that unless you were a big time site like Amazon, most people refused to look at you. With the release of the various Google updates, we have a new opportunity to take advantage of what these updates offer.

If you want to remain relevant in Google search, you don’t have to give up SEO, you just have to know what Google wants. Read their best practice guidelines and you will learn exactly what you need to know to get a good search ranking from Google. In the end the updates like Zebra are not a bad thing, they are a very good thing for us all.

Rachel Fine is working to make sure that those who build a website know how to successfully market it and reach their goals. Her articles are found on many websites and publications dealing with marketing and SEO.

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